Day 7 - On which Mountain?

Today's Scripture comes from the woman at the well story in John  4 -  
¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 

The Jews had the temple in Jerusalem, while the woman, a Samaritan thought the correct place was Mount Gerizim.  But Jesus answers her with   ²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 


Jesus' death and resurrection would soon be coming and from that a different way of thinking began.  God can be worshipped from anywhere.  From any mountain, in any room or from any country.  That is the freedom of religion.  

What I always find humorous in the Bible is that  woman almost always "got it", this woman understood  that Jesus was the Messiah and went to tell others.  The Disciples never quite got what Jesus was trying to tell them until after the resurrection.  It all comes down to faith.  


Oh, I have heard of arguments (been in a few) as to which mountain (religion) is the right one.  The louder the other person is yelling tells me they haven't gotten it yet, Jesus' message was about loving one another not which religion is right and which is wrong. 


So remember, it's not where your mountain is, but what you have learned from that mountain.

Day 6: The mountain that showed up at my door

In the beginning of my 40 days on the mountain I said something like if I can't go to the mountains, I'll have the mountains come to me.  Literally on Saturday this scripture came to me via a knock on the front door.  It was my friends, the Jehovah Witnesses and she asked me, do you think Church and Politics should be mixed.  I said  no (thinking of the statement never talk about either because it causes many an argument, a few I have been in, LOL) She then agrees and sites this scripture.

John 6: 15 -  Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

Now I wasn't thinking about church and politics when she was reading this to me, all I could see was the word MOUNTAIN, and I am thinking, wow God you can really send reminders!  It was like - good morning Bev, oh by the way your behind on that 40 day blog so here is a scripture to ponder.  So ponder I have, I am not sure this is really about Jesus not wanting to be a politician or  not wanting to mix religion with politics as much as it was that the people did not understand what kind of "Kingdom" Jesus was going to be ruling over.

The people of the time wanted a King who would fight for the freedom.  Jesus was fighting, but for our souls, His Kingdom was to be in heaven and the people weren't quite grasping that at the time.  The people wanted war but Jesus was trying to teach us unconditional love for one another.  Something, I still have a little trouble grasping, and maybe that's why God sent a mountain to my door to remind me I am on a journey and I need to continue on it.

Day 5: Comfort Zones

Today's mountain scripture came from a book I am reading - The Prayer of Jabez Devotional. It is funny how God works sometimes, I didn't expect it and poof it just popped up in my reading.

From Joshua 14: 12-13 "Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified.  It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said" and Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunnch as an inheritance.

This story is about Caleb an old friend of Joshua.  They had faced a lot of hard times together since leaving Egypt.  Forty Five years earlier they were among a group of commandos Moses sent to spy out the Promised Land.  Caleb and Joshua were the only ones who trusted God would help Israel win the Promised Land.  In this story Caleb is now 85 and he still wants the land promised to him by Moses for his bravery as a spy.  In fact he plans on fighting for it and he succeeds.   At the age of 85 Caleb did not mind traveling out of his comfort zone. 

I like comfort zones, and really hate leaving them.  My job was my comfort zone and now I really should look for something different to do in life, but I hate leaving the comfort of what I know and my friends.   God wants us to leave our comfort zones when it comes to His ministry,  God always comes knocking with a bigger idea.   We should really never be scared of God's next idea for us, because He is with us in it, but fear has stopped many a Christian from taking big steps.  I know this is something I need to really work on.

I love this quote by William Shedd - it says it all - "A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."

Day 4: Sermon on the mountain

I am not sure where this scripture will lead me, but here we go. This particular teaching is know as the Sermon on the Mount -

Matthew 5: 1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, ² and he began to teach them. 

What Jesus taught them were the Beatitudes and here they are

  “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴ Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
⁵ Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
⁷ Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 

I always found the Beatitudes hard to teach to Sunday School Children.  Jesus is trying to teach us a transformation of our inner self.  Jesus presents the Beatitudes in a positive sense, virtues in life that will lead to a reward, not so much in this lifetime but in eternity. Someone once described them as Be - attitudes,  positive traits for our life.  They breakdown more simply as --be humble, mourning not only in the passing of others, but mourning our own regrets of our sins.  Meekness, which follows along with humility, meekness can also mean kindness and gentleness.  Justice, mercy, love and peace all wonderful traits the can build off from one another.  Of course, all this might come with a price, others might not understand you and insult you, and even persecute you.  This still happens today.  But in the end, you got heaven to look forward to.


Maybe these are some attitudes I need to build on more. Maybe that's why I was led to this mountain and had such a hard time with it.   Today's sermon at church  reflected on letting God's Love flow in and out of us.  Love for one another is sometimes hard to maintain.  As much as you love someone, it can also be easy to get mad at them.  But to love unconditionally is the gift that God gave us in Jesus and His teachings are trying to show us the way to love everyone unconditionally to.  Not an easy thing to do, but who said this was going to be easy.

Day 3: Temptation

If you were wondering, I wasn't napping on the mountain top, life just got in the way.  I had this post written out in my notes, but just haven't had time to post it here.  Today's mountain is from Matthew 4:8  Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ⁹ “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ ” 

Since we start off with the word "Again" we know that this is not the first time the devil tempted Jesus, in fact it was the third time.  This story takes place right after the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, and the voice of God declaring that Jesus was His Son.  Jesus leaves and fasts for 40 days and 40 nights (geeze 40 days sounds so familiar)  and the devil tempts  him by saying - "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” but Jesus answers with  "It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.".  Jesus had faith that God would provide for Him.  Then the devil tries to tempt Him by taking him to the highest spot in the Holy City and saying  "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone”  But Jesus answers with, It is also written, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."  Now God test us from time to time, but to test God means that really, you don't have faith.  And now lastly, from our mountain the temptation of POWER to have everything, but the catch is to worship the devil but Jesus again counters with ...it is written  "Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only." 

Jesus defeated the devil, defeated temptation by a means offered to each and everyone of us; and that is by the thoughtful and intelligent use of the Word of God.  Each answer of Jesus was a scripture from the old testament, scriptures Jesus had memorized.  I guess that's why so many people say to memorize scripture, but I have a hard time remembering what I did today let alone a lot of scriptures, but the Bible is usually pretty handy at my house, one only has to open it for answers.  What's your temptation?  and what does the Bible say to help counter it.. If you cannot find anything specific I leave you with his last scripture that helps us deal with temptation.

From 1 Corinthians 10:13

¹³ No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.